Here are details of those stories, plus others we have in the works for today and notable pieces that we sent in the past 10 hours:

TOP NEWS

SYRIA — U.N. chemical weapons experts headed to a Damascus suburb on Wednesday for a new tour of areas struck by a purported poison gas attack, activists said, as Western powers laid the groundwork for a possible punitive strike and the U.N. chief pleaded for more time for diplomacy. SENT: 1000 words. UPCOMING: Developing.

UNITED STATES-SYRIA — The Obama administration is still defining objectives of a potential military strike on Syria and considering possible Syrian government reprisals, two senior administration officials said Wednesday. One of the officials also said the administration is considering more than a single set of military strikes, which likely would be led by low-flying cruise missiles fired from any of four U.S. Navy destroyers off Syria’s coast. No IC report today. SENT: 785 words, photos. UPCOMING: Developing through the day; Obama does interview with PBS, airs at 2200 GMT.

— SYRIA-MILITARY STRIKES — A look at the assets the U.S. military has to attack Syria and what the possible targets are. Will include glance encompassing European assets and interactive. UPCOMING: 700 words by 2000 GMT.

IRAQ — A coordinated wave of bombings tore through Shiite Muslim areas in and around the Iraqi capital early Wednesday, part of a wave of bloodshed that killed at least 66 people and wounded many more, officials said. The attacks are the latest in a relentless wave of killing that has left thousands dead since April, marking the country’s worst spate of bloodshed since 2008. SENT: 660 words, photos.

IRAN-NUCLEAR — Iran and the U.N. nuclear agency have agreed to restart talks focused on the agency’s attempts to probe suspicions that Tehran worked on atomic weapons, diplomats say, in the first such meeting since Iran’s hard-line president was replaced by a more moderate successor. SENT: 850 words.

CONGO FIGHTING — United Nations helicopters fired on rebels fighting Congolese troops just outside a city of nearly 1 million people in eastern Congo on Wednesday, a military spokesman for the U.N. mission said. SENT: 400 words.

JAPAN-NKOREA-DETAINED AMERICAN — A senior U.S. envoy who will travel to North Korea later this week said Wednesday that he plans to strongly appeal for the release of an American sentenced to 15 years of hard labor by the authoritarian state. SENT: 620 words, photos.

NIGERIA VIOLENCE — Two attacks by suspected members of a Nigerian Islamic sect have killed at least 20 members of a vigilante group out to fight the sect, residents and an official said Tuesday. SENT: 690 WORDS.

CHINA-XINJIANG — China confirmed Wednesday that police conducted a raid last week on an alleged terrorist cell in the restive northwestern region of Xinjiang, although details about the death toll and identities of those killed remain sketchy. SENT: 520 words.

AUSTRALIAN PLAYER-RANDOM SLAYING — The 22-year-old Australian baseball player slain in a drive-by shooting in Oklahoma is buried in his hometown of Melbourne after a funeral attended by more than 500 mourners. SENT: 680 words, photos.

NIGERIA - THE MISSING — In an area of Nigeria where an Islamic insurgency has caught fire, security forces are carrying out night raids in residential neighborhoods and have arrested many people. No one knows where the detainees have wound up, whether they’re in good health or even if they’re still alive. SENT: 1000 words, photos.

PERU-CRADLE OF GOLD — The ruined city known as the “cradle of gold” was once a mountaintop refuge of Incan royalty, like fabled Macchu Picchu just 30 miles away. Yet only a handful of tourists visit each day, those willing to make a two-day hike to reach its majestic solitude. That’s about to change: The government plans Peru’s first aerial tramway to bridge a deep canyon and make Choquequirao reachable in just 15 minutes from the nearest road. SENT: 620 words, photos.

JAPAN-NUCLEAR— Japan’s nuclear regulator upgrades the rating of a leak of radiation-contaminated water from a tank at its tsunami-wrecked nuclear plant to a “serious incident” on an international scale, and castigates the plant operator for failing to catch the problem earlier. SENT: 650 words, photos.

JAPAN-NUCLEAR-FISHERMEN — For the last 2 ½ years, fishermen from the port of Yotsukura near the stricken Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant have been mostly stuck on land with little to do. In a nation highly sensitive to food safety, there is no market for the fish caught near the stricken plant because the meltdowns it suffered contaminated the ocean water and marine life with radiation. SENT: 820 words, photos.

INDONESIA-ZOO ANIMALS DIE — An investigation is under way after authorities determined that an endangered Sumatran tiger and two African lions found dead at an Indonesian zoo died from poison. SENT: 200 words.

MARCH ON WASHINGTON — Tens of thousands of people gather for the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Obama, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter join members of the King family, lawmakers and civil rights leaders including Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. who spoke at the 1963 march and will do so again today. SENT: 600 words. UPCOMING. Will be updated from 1500 GMT event, Obama speaking at 1905 GMT, photos, video, interactive.

NYPD INTELLIGENCE — The New York Police Department has secretly labeled entire mosques as terrorism organizations, a designation that allows police to use informants to record sermons and spy on imams, often without specific evidence of criminal wrongdoing. SENT: 1600 words, photos, video.

FORT HOOD SHOOTING — With his life on the line, Hasan will have one last chance during closing arguments at sentencing before jurors decide his fate. SENT: 245 words, photo. UPCOMING: Will be updated after 1400 GMT start and immediately following sentence when it comes, photos, interactive, video.

SUPREMECIST SETTLEMENT — Craig Cobb has a dream for the sleepy southwestern North Dakota farming town of Leith, one that has little to do with any vision he has of urban renewal and a lot to do with his views on race and religion. He wants to build a park in memory of a late noe-Nazi activist, and a community for a white power music festival, a block where supremacists would live together. Cobb’s plan to create a community for white supremacists is worrying neighbors, and they are starting to mobilize to stop his efforts. UPCOMING: 600 words, photos, by 1900 GMT.

RICIN LETTERS — A court weighs whether the woman accused of framing her husband in a plot to send ricin-laced letters to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and President Obama is competent to stand trial. UPCOMING: Hearing starts at 1600 GMT; photos

HEALTH

AGING BRAINS (HOLD FOR RELEASE, 2 p.m. EDT) — Scientists have found a compelling new clue that age-related memory loss really is a different condition than Alzheimer’s disease — a step in the quest to one day be able tell if those misplaced car keys are just a senior moment or the start of something worse. UPCOMING: 580 words, HOLD FOR RELEASE at 1800 GMT.

KYRGYZSTAN-PLAGUE — Four people have been hospitalized and 160 quarantined after a 15-year-old boy who ate marmot meat died of the bubonic plague last week, the Kyrgyz Ministry of Health said Wednesday. SENT: 200 words.

NEW ZEALAND-RECALLED MILK — A botulism scare that damaged New Zealand’s international reputation for providing safe dairy products was likely a false alarm, government officials say. SENT: 300 words.

SCIENCE

CHINA-SPACE — China says it will launch its first unmanned lunar lander by the end of this year. SENT: 200 words.

TECH

SATELLITE LAUNCH — A powerful rocket carrying a National Reconnaissance Office satellite is expected to be launched into orbit Wednesday from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the California coast at 10:52 a.m. SENT: 170 words. UPCOMING: Developing.

BUSINESS

FAST FOOD STRIKES — Fast-food and retail workers from eight cities are asking low-wage workers across the country to join them in a national day of strikes on Thursday. They’re calling for companies to raise their hourly pay. UPCOMING: by 2100 GMT photos, video.

ENTERTAINMENT

TV-SAM SIMON’S END DAYS — Since word got out about Sam Simon’s cancer, this co-creator of “The Simpsons” and passionate philanthropist has heard from many people online eager to help him give away his sizable wealth. “I’m bedridden,” says Simon, conjuring the scene with a chortle, “and I’m weighing whether to dole my money to people lined up outside the house. UPCOMING: 1000 words by 1530 GMT, photos.

THEATER-BROADWAY PREVIEW — There’s Denzel Washington and Billy Crystal, plenty of Shakespeare and a nice dash of Harold Pinter. There’s even a musical of the boxing classic “Rocky” and the much anticipated return of Neil Patrick Harris and “Les Mis.” This upcoming season on Broadway seems to have something for everyone. SENT: 1400 words, photos.

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL

VENICE, Italy - The Venice Film Festival opens its 70th edition and runs through Sept. 7, when the prestigious Golden Lion will be awarded. It opens with the out-of-competition film “Gravity,” starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as astronauts adrift in space. By Colleen Barry.